Season 3, episode 14
Prey
- Disillusioned with The Governor, Andrea makes a desperate bid for the prison.
The episode begins with a flashback. Andrea and Michonne are sitting near a campfire, and the subject of Michonne's walkers is brought up. Michonne indicates that the walkers deserved their fate, and weren't human to begin with.
In the present day, The Governor attaches the chains that held Michonne's pets to the wall of an interrogation room. Outside, Andrea sees Martinez loading guns into a truck, and asks Milton why they're getting armed if there's a deal on the table. Milton tells her it's just a precaution.
Back in the interrogation room, Milton goes to The Governor and asks him to re-evaluate his plan to kill Michonne, but The Governor insists that he needs to get revenge for Penny. Back outside, Milton tells Andrea about The Governor's plan to kill everyone at the prison, and takes her back inside to show her interrogation room. The Governor enters and begins setting out implements, but when Andrea aims her gun at him, Milton forces her hand down. He indicates that The Governor is still a good man, but Andrea decides to leave for the prison. Once outside again, Martinez confiscates her weapon on The Governor's behalf, indicating it's a precaution.
The Governor approaches Andrea and asks to come with him the next day to handle the deal, and she agrees. After he leaves, however, she goes to the perimeter gate, which is being guarded by Tyreese and Sasha. She tries to get them to leave with a cover story, then eventually gives up and tells them she's leaving, before indicating that The Governor isn't who he claims to be.
Some time later, The Governor realizes that Andrea has left, and talks to Tyreese and Sasha about her whereabouts. Afterwards, Milton pleads with him to let Andrea go. The Governor realizes that Milton told Andrea about the plan to ambush the prison, and slams him against a wall. Elsewhere, Andrea runs at full sprint towards the prison.
Elsewhere in Woodbury, Allen blames Tyreese for screwing up their reputation in Woodbury, just before Martinez asks them both to help him with a task. They drive to the pit of walkers, where Martinez requests their help rounding them up. Tyreese refuses to help and threatens to leave, just before Allen interjects and they begin to brawl. The fight ends with Tyreese overtaking Allen and hanging him over the walker pit. Allen tells Tyreese to drop him, but the latter refuses and pulls him back out.
In the nearby forest, Andrea is running when she spots The Governor's truck approaching. She manages to hide, killing a group of walkers in the process, but she is spotted and runs through a field to an abandoned warehouse. Inside, The Governor stalks Andrea and corners her near a door beside a stairwell. Andrea opens the door to find a horde of walkers, and manages to sneak in without the walkers noticing. When The Governor opens the door, the walkers attack, and Andrea runs away in the confusion.
Later that night, an unknown individual douses the walker pit with gasoline and sets it ablaze. The next morning, Andrea reaches the prison and frantically waves towards the guardtower. Rick is watching, but before he can spot her, The Governor appears and tackles Andrea to the ground while silencing her.
The Governor drives back to Woodbury and meets with Martinez, who indicates that Andrea is still on the loose and that someone burned the walker pit. Martinez and The Governor think Tyreese is responsible, though when the The Governor questions him, Tyreese is confused and doesn't know.
Later, Milton meets The Governor and replies that it's a shame the walker pit was burned. The Governor realizes that Milton burned it, and eyes him warily. Meanwhile, Andrea wakes up to find herself bound and gagged in The Governor's interrogation room...
Tropes:
- Bound and Gagged: Andrea at the end of the episode.
- Bumbling Dad: In-universe. Allen blames Tyreese for jeopardizing his standing with The Governor and emasculating him in front of his family. This eventually leads to Allen trying to beat up Tyreese at the walker pit - only to be easily outmatched and threatened.
- Continuity Nod: The Governor whistles the same song he sung for Penny in "Made To Suffer" while stalking Andrea in the warehouse, and while preparing the dungeon he intends for Michonne.
- Determinator: Played with. Andrea risks hell and high water to make it back to the prison, but ends up getting caught right outside the prison gate.
- Dramatic Irony: We know Andrea's arse deep in this because she'd ignored Michonne's warnings. Now it's Andrea's turn to be ignored.
- Failed a Spot Check: Andrea, several times, in her flight from the Governor. Once she fails to notice a bucket full of tools, perhaps alerting the Governor of her presence. More seriously, when she first fled from his truck, she hid in the woods and failed to see several walkers. The one behind her could be excused, but not the three in front of her.
- Hope Spot: Andrea makes it to the prison, and is understandably relieved to be there, but when she waves at the guardtower, she's tackled and silenced by The Governor.
- Made of Iron: The Governor takes down a herd by himself, armed with a shovel.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Milton, the closest thing the prison group had to a friend in Woodbury besides Andrea, not only stops her from shooting The Governor, but inadvertently implicates himself as the one who burned the walker pit at the end of the episode. As a result, The Governor is onto him and Andrea is captured.
- Poor Communication Kills: Take your pick - Milton refusing to believe The Governor is a bad person and telling Andrea so, Andrea not telling Tyreese and Sasha to keep her whereabouts secret from The Governor, the Milton all but accusing himself while talking to The Governor... had any of these situations not happened, Andrea's actions might have turned out better later on.
- Room Full of Zombies: Andrea finds one and uses it to distract The Governor while she flees.
- Saying Too Much: Milton inadvertently confesses to being the one who burned the walker pit by bringing it up with The Governor before anyone else knew about it.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The entire plot of the episode.
- Sinister Scraping Sound: The governor with his shovel.
- Tranquil Fury: The Governor does a better job at hiding his fury this time around, when confronting Tyreese when he believes he burned the walker pit. However, when he realizes that Tyreese wasn't behind it, he has an Oh, Crap! reaction and turns his attitude around.
